1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to document printers and, more particularly, to such printers having means for delivering and staging a document.
2. Description of Related Art
It is known in the art to print and output a document to a user such as a customer or customer service representative, such as those for printing receipts, airline tickets, and boarding passes.
An example of a previously used document staging and presentation device is exhibited in the ORCA self-service device, a product co-owned with the present invention. Some drawbacks of the ORCA device include a slow document print and dispense rate. In addition, the device requires a presenter and only allows single document staging. Also, because of the utilization of an active presenter and inconsistencies in the form of conventionally oriented narrow-format documents as they are dispensed, jams are more likely to occur.
The printer of Zietlow et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,434) enables a page to be printed in an arbitrary selected orientation. The label printer of Kitaoka (U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,929) also is adapted to print in variable formats to permit various label configurations. The ink jet printer of Furukawa (U.S. Pat. No. 4,272,771) includes a plural head that can print an entire line simultaneously. Koike (U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,461) discloses a small-size printer having a plurality of typing wheels. The print compressor of Shibata et al. (U.S. Pat No. 4,741,635) increases legibility of size-reduced symbols. Haraga et al. (U.S. Pat No. 4,996,539) teach a label printer that uses different memory cards for achieving desired printing formats. The printer of Salmon (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,153,617 and 5,287,127) includes a toner source and delivery apparatus for printing with a programmable pixel intensity. Nakata (U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,871) discloses a printer having a scroll print buffer that is applicable independently of a structure of recording elements of a print head. The document printer of LaDue et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,971,632) is adapted to produce a variety of document formats from a host originated data stream. Wen (U.S. Pat. No. 6,109,745) teaches a printing apparatus for forming a borderless image on a receiver in response to a digital image file having a digital image and the desired size of the image to be formed.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a document dispenser having a rapid print and dispense rate.
It is another object to provide such a dispenser having multiple document staging.
It is an additional object to provide such a dispenser that minimizes a likelihood of jamming.
It is also an object to provide such a dispenser that does not require a mechanical presentation apparatus.
These objects and others are achieved by the present invention, a document printing, staging, and presentation device that substantially reduces the time required to print and dispense documents such as, but not limited to, narrow-format documents, allows staging of multiple documents, and reduces document jamming without the use of active mechanical staging and presentation devices.
A document staging and presentation device comprising an enclosure having a slot therein for retrieving a document therethrough and a printer housed within the enclosure. A spindle support is affixed within the enclosure, and a spindle is rotatably affixed to the spindle support The spindle is adapted to hold a roll of paper thereon and is positioned to feed an end of paper into the printer. The paper emerging from the roll has a curvature imparted by having been rolled.
A paper chute having an upper edge is positioned to receive a document exiting the printer and an aperture adjacent a lower edge. The paper chute has e downward slope that is adapted to permit the document to glide therealong aerodynamically, facilitated by the papers curvature, toward and through the aperture.
A staging tray is housed within the enclosure for receiving a document from the paper chute. The tray has a front edge adjacent the slot and a rear edge adjacent the paper chute aperture.
The features that characterize the invention, both as to organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages thereof, will be better understood from the following description used in conjunction with the accompanying drawing. It is to be expressly understood that the drawing is for the purpose of illustration and description and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention. These and other objects attained, and advantages offered, by the present invention will become more fully apparent as the description that now follows is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.